Vatican suggests Israel breaks law in some responses to terrorism

Holy See will not oppose only Palestinian acts

Aug 23, 2005

The Vatican, in a sharp retort to Israeli criticism of Pope Benedict XVI, said it could not protest every act of Palestinian terrorism because Israel’s responses are “not always compatible with the norms of international law.”

The unusually pointed statement issued by the Vatican on July 28 follows Israeli criticism that the pope ignored Israel when mentioning terrorist attacks in London, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey four days earlier.

Israel summoned the Holy See’s ambassador to Israel to lodge a formal complaint, but the Vatican statement called the complaints “groundless.” The Vatican appeared to take particular offense at suggestions that the late Pope John Paul II had been silent on the issue.